Stroock stayed focused on its core strengths in 2007, avoiding the downsizing that plagued other firms by not ballooning when the securitization market was at its peak. And even in a tough year for the market, the firm managed to innovate, working on products such as embedded value insurance-linked securities and CLO-like structures for managed leveraged investment portfolios using total return swaps. GSC Partners, HarbourView Asset Management and Hyperion Brookfield Asset Management are among the collateral managers for which Stroock is currently the primary CDO, derivatives and fund counsel.

Richard Fried and Lois Weinroth co-head structured finance at the law firm, while Jeffrey Stern oversees CDOs and Allan Krinsman is responsible for MBS.